Naval battles are the main focus here, but it seems more like a captain's strong irritation rather than a real fury. It's not a bad game, but it's nothing spectacular either.

Gameplay

You are in control of a ship, and your objective is to destroy enemy vessels and bases by taping the screen to aim your fire. The enemy is, of course, firing back at you from other ships, from planes, from land bases and from boss vessels of different kinds. You try to avoid the bombs, torpedoes and bullets by making your ship go back and forth on a 2D plane. This is done by sliding a virtual joystick to the left and right. I found this setup quite annoying, because the joystick is so small that my finger tended to slip off almost constantly. A longer slide expanse would be a welcome change in any forthcoming updates.

As you progress in the game, you earn points with which you can upgrade your ship?s capacities and equipment. This is good because in the beginning stages, the enemy airplanes seem completely invulnerable to your fire. This is very frustrating, because it gives your enemy too much of an advantage, and robs you of the pleasure of seeing the planes fall out of the sky. The only airship you can hit in the beginning is the boss ship. These bosses show up at the end of a level, typical of such games. There are ten different scenarios, and a total of forty levels.

You also gain points for each item you destroy, but there are no leader boards so it seems pointless to accumulate these points. The game is not set up for multiplayers. This is essentially a solo exercise against the system, and unfortunately it gets repetitive very quickly.

Graphics

Because you play in 2D, there is no steering of the ship except back and forth, and this accentuates the repetitive aspect of the game play. All you do is go back and forth, and tap to shoot. Seeing more of the scene due to the iPad?s large screen is a welcome touch, but a consequence of this choice is that the vessel graphics are quite small, and lack details. It would have been better to have more of a scrolling view, with bigger and more varied vessels. As mentioned before, there are only two touch controls: the mediocre sliding joystick and your finger taps to aim your fire. Frankly, a ship?s wheel rather than a joystick would give you more of the feeling of truly controlling a naval vessel.

Sound

The sound effects design is okay; fairly standard for this kind of game, if truth be told. There are explosions galore. Unfortunately, that?s about it. No motor sounds, wave sounds, or the shouts of sailors in a combat situation. As it is, the sounds don?t change much, and that?s not very exciting. Perhaps the developers realized this, because the music provided in the game certainly tries to give an impression of frenzied action. Sadly, it misses the mark completely. A frantic beat does not equal excitement, and the music is not well-suited to the military theme of this game. Unfortunately, you cannot play your own music within the game. This is another area where this game can stand serious improvement.

Conclusion

If you like simple shooting games, this might be the app for you, but I wouldn?t spend more than a dollar for it. There are many superior games out there that are priced more reasonably than this one. The developers are offering a reduced price of a dollar for a short introductory period, and this price will climb by a dollar each week until it returns to its full cost of five dollars. If you think this is something you?d like to have in your collection of games, get it now.

Ratings (scale of 1 to 5):

Graphics: - 3 - Not much variation, too small and not very detailed.Sound: - 2 - Routine sound effects, and unpleasant music.Controls: - 2 - Simple controls, suitable to this type of game play, but the small joy stick needs much work.Gameplay: - 3 - For a quick time waster, this game is okay. Simple enough for kids to play. Gets repetitive rather quickly.

Playing Hints and Tips:

-This game is easy to pick up. Upgrade your equipment as fast as you can so your aim and speed improve. This way, the game won?t be so frustrating due to the inability to do any damage to the planes flying around and shooting at you.

- One tip to survive the easy stages with more success: there are less missiles raining down on you at either end of the play screen, so hanging out there in the boss level will give you a better chance to beat the big guy before you get blown to bits yourself.